Looking For the Right One
by MistyxKisame
Summary: Poor Kai is tired of Popuri stalking him and messing up everything for him. He decides its time for him to find someone to settle down with and hope the pink haired menace will back off. With a town full of beautiful women and friendly faces, its going to be pretty easy...or is it? Will later be rated M for sex scenes.
1. Chapter 1

Kai was excited to be back in Mineral Town. The local women were pretty good looking, the food at Doug's Inn was great, the town's people were pretty friendly, and he made a good amount of money too even with the small amount of people living there. However there was one part he didn't like about the town…Popuri. She was a piece of work and not the good kind either. She was a bit of an idiot, had a strong childish air around her, and practically stalked him. She was a cute girl, but she was always following him around. The only times she didn't bother him were when she was at home on Mondays-Saturday during certain times. Sundays and Tuesdays he wasn't so lucky.

If only he could find a wife so Popuri would fuck off. There weren't too many women in town to woo. Elli was okay, but she was dedicated to her work and probably wouldn't want to leave the village only to come back every summer to see her brother and grandmother. Next up was Ann and Karen. Ann was alright, but he found her a bit bland. Plus she obviously didn't want to leave her dad behind to care for the inn alone. Karen was pretty cute and so was Mary. Maybe one of them would become his wife or girlfriend. Karen was fun to be around and he had a nice sense of humor. She was also pretty hot and a great dancer. Mary was smart, cute, and caring. She'd love traveling and have all sorts of things to write about.

Kai then decided to head off to Mary's library. Locked, crap! He looked at his watch. Mary's family was in the mountains so he'd have to wait until she came home. He suddenly heard a couple of voices. It sounded like May and Popuri! He looked around quickly and then leaped into a bush nearby. Just then May and Popuri walked by. Popuri looked around. "Man, where is he?"

"I saw him going this way." May informed the older female.

"Kai! Kai!" Popuri yelled. "Oh where is he?"

'DON'T FIND ME! DON'T FIND ME!' Kai thought to himself. Luckily Popuri walked on by and kept going. He sighed with relief as she left the area. He climbed out of the bushes only for something to knock him back into the bushes, knocking him out for quite some time. When he woke up, he found a couple of faces looking down at him.

"Kai, are you okay?" asked Elli looking concerned. "You were out for quite some time."

"Yeah. I'm fine, but something hit me in the head really hard." He rubbed his sore head.

"Sorry about that." A blonde young woman said blushing slightly as Elli went off. He had never seen her before. She was wearing overalls, had large blue eyes, and long blonde hair. She was kind of pretty too. She must be the farmer that was taking over that old farm that Mary told him about. He didn't know her name though. Popuri interrupted them before Mary could give a name.

"Don't worry about it. It my fault for being in the bushes."

"What were you doing in the bushes?"

"I was hiding from Popuri."

"Why would you hid from Popuri?" the woman looked confused.

"She's always stalking me and she won't leave me alone." he confessed. "I mean she's alright, but she keeps bothering me and Rick won't leave me alone about her."

"Ooh so you're Kai!" said the blonde woman.

"Rick mentioned me before, huh?" Kai frowned. "'He's told you how big a jerk I am, huh?"

"That's all he talks about…same with Popuri."

"You mean talking about me all the time?"

"Do you two have something going on?" she raised a brow.

"Why do you ask?" Kai too raised a brow at her.

"Uh no reason." She said blushing. "It's just that she's always talking about you."

"Heh, well I'm on the market if you're interested." He said smirking and even winked at the blonde woman.

"Who said I was interested?"

"Well sorry if I'm mistaken, but the blush on your face says otherwise."

"And if I'm mistaken, the look on my face agrees with Rick that you're a cocky womanizer."

"Hey don't be like that." Kai said pretending to pout. "I'm a nice guy once you get to know me."

"We'll see."

Before Kai could ask her name, Elli came back into the room with a Turbojolt potion. "Here you are, Kai. The doctor says you need it."

"Thanks, Elli."

"Oh by the way, Popuri stopped by."

"Oh. What did she want?"

"She was just looking for you not too long ago. Of course you weren't here at the time though. She said if you happened to stop by to come see her. She has something for you."

"Okay, thanks." Kai sighed. "I'd better get going. People are going to start showing up at the restaurant soon."

"Take care, Kai."

As Kai was leaving, he remembered to ask the woman for her name and maybe even her number, but found her to be gone. Where'd she go? He just shrugged and started off towards the beach. Once he was there, he saw Barley, May, and Stu at the beach. He waved at them as he passed them by. If he was lucky, he'd have some children someday. Hopefully not with Popuri.

Just as he was making snow cones for the kids on the beach, he heard Popuri's annoying voice. "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI! OVER HERE! IT'S POPURI!"

"Yeah, in a min…" Just as Stu and May had gotten their cones, Popuri jumped on Kai out of nowhere causing him to fall over and knock the snow cone machine over. Kai groaned when he heard it break. The snow cone machine was a gift he had gotten from a pretty, young girl in Forget-Me-Not Valley. The machine had made him tons of money, especially in the summer time. Now he'd have to buy a new one which could take weeks if not days for a new one to come in. He felt like strangling the pink haired woman, but refrained from doing so. He'd hate to hear Rick's mouth.

"I gotcha, Kai!" she giggled.

"Yeah and you got my snow cone machine." He snapped, not in the mood to entertain the woman's playful attitude.

"Oops! Sorry, Kai, but I couldn't help it! I'm just so glad to see you!" she blushed.

"Well could you take that gladness somewhere else? I've gotta clean this mess up." He said glaring at her. Was it necessary for her to jump over the counter and tackle him? She could have just easily went around the counter and hugged him.

"I'll help!" Popuri said eagerly.

"No thanks. You've helped enough."

"Huh? I just got here." Popuri looked confused.

"POPURI!" Kai frowned. Great. Just what he needed, RICK. "So this is where you've been! I needed your help today, but you were gone all day wasting your time with him!"

"Calm down, Rick." Karen rolled her eyes at her friend. "Let her hang out with who she wants."

"Not with him. He's no good."

"I'm not in the mood for your shit, Rick." Kai snapped. "Take her with you and get the hell out if you came to start something."

"WHAT?!" Rick shook his fist at the man. "I OUGHT TO…"

"Rick, we only came here to get something to eat." Karen said coming between him and Kai. "I knew it was a bad idea to bring you along here."

"Did you not hear what he just said?"

"I heard him, but you brought it on yourself. Keep egging him on and he'll whoop your ass. I don't blame Kai for acting that way." The brunette sighed. "You're always harassing him about Popuri. Let her hang out with him if she wants to."

"I don't trust this son of a gun!"

"Listen, if you aren't going to buy something, then please leave. I'm having a bad day."

"Oh what's wrong Kai?" Popuri said grabbing her crush's arm.

"Well you broke my snow cone machine." He glared at her. This bitch was a dense one.

"Did I do that? I'm sorry, Kai!" Popuri's face then lit up. "OH! How I help out around here?"

"I just told you no." he snapped. "We've already discussed this!"

"Oh right, but I can still help out! I can get you a new snow cone machine on the double." Popuri ran out.

Rick ran after his sister, loudly asking her how she planned to do so. Karen rolled her eyes. "Rick is such a handful sometimes. Sorry about that, Kai. I don't know why he dislikes you so much."

"He thinks I like Popuri or something."

"Do you?"

"She's nice and everything, but she's not my type and troublesome. Just a few minutes ago, she jumped across the counter and knocked over my snow cone machine and that's one of my most popular items!"

"She jumped across?" she looked surprised.

"Yes. Not only that, but she keeps stalking me and gets mad whenever I talk to another girl." the young man sighed. "When I spoke to Mary the other day, she got all jealous and asked if I liked her. When I said I did, she got all mad and got this weird look on her face. She looked like she wanted to attack me for saying Mary looked better."

"You like Mary?"

"She's alright. I wouldn't mind being with her if that's what you're asking." Kai shrugged as he dumped the last of the machine into the trash. "I'd rather marry just about anybody in this village if it means not marrying Popuri."

"I see. Have you ever told her to leave you alone or that you're not interested?"

"I've tried, but all she does is just get mad and ask who I'm seeing and insult every girl I talk to." He sighed as he cleaned off the counter. "I can't even get a meal with her harassing Ann with that evil look in her eyes."

Karen shook her head. "What some girls will do to make sure their crush doesn't get taken away from them…well you know what you have to do, right?"

"Yeah. Getting a girlfriend so she'll back off. I'm working on it."

"If you want, I could set you up with Mary or Ann if you'd like."

"It couldn't hurt."

"Great. I'll let you know where to meet." Karen smiled and gave Kai a thumbs up. She then looked at the clock. "Oh crap! It's time to get back to work. I'd better go before dad throws a fit. I'll just have something to go."

Kai gave her something on the house and Karen went off on her way. It wasn't even five minutes after Karen left was when he realized he hadn't asked about that mysterious young woman's name was. Oh well.


	2. Chapter 2

Kai was eating his lunch when little May came by looking sad. "Hey, May. What's up?"

"My mom still won't come back." pouted the little girl. "She's been gone for a long time and no matter how much I ask her, she still won't come back."

"Well maybe she's just busy." Kai couldn't help but to feel bad for the kid.

The poor girl was left alone without anyone else in the world except for her grandfather. He hated to say it, but how long would Barley be able to care for the little girl? He was pretty old after all. May's mother was a bitch for leaving the kid behind and not even taking the time to visit her. Perhaps the kid was better off without the woman. If he was ever to become a father, he would always be there for his kid and not just ship her off to the next relation and be done with her.

"Maybe…I just wish she would come back or even stop by." May confessed. "I miss her."

"How about a free snow cone? That'll make you feel better, won't it?" asked Kai.

"I thought it broke." said May remembering how Kai had sadly taken the broken machine to the dumpster a few days ago.

"It did, but I got a brand new one. It wasn't cheap and I had to spend a fortune on it plus there was the shipping to get it shipped here overnight, but in the end it was worth it." Kai said proudly. "It's the new Ice Master machine. It makes more cones in record time and makes more cones at once than the old one."

"That's cool. I'll have a cherry one, please."

"Cherry coming right up!" Kai went over to the machine and placed the cone into one of the cove holders. Before he could press the button, something red blurred by and landed on the cord of the ice machine. The machine quickly caught fire causing May to run outside for safety while Kai searched for a fire extinguisher. Quickly finding one, he put the fire out. Just as the last flame disappeared, Popuri ran in with a bucket, slipped on a wet spot on the floor, and splashed Kai.

"Oops, sorry Kai."

"What the heck are you doing here?" he asked wiping the water off his face.

"I was trying to help."

"You're not supposed to put water on an electrical fire, Popuri." Kai rolled his eyes.

"Well yeah, but…oh Kai. I'm sorry about your machine. I wasn't trying to hit it. You just looked like you needed to cool off."

"What?" When Popuri repeated what she had said, Kai flipped over a nearby table. "YOU DAMNED FOOL! HOW COULD YOU BE SO CARELESS…YOU…YOU…YOU PSYCHOPATH! I CAN'T STAND YOU, POPURI! YOU'RE A FUCKING NUISANCE AND A WASTE OF FUCKING LIFE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS, BUT WHY THE HECK DIDN'T YOUR FOLKS STOP AT RICK'S BITCH ASS?! YOU'D THEY HAVE TO HAVE YOU OF ALL PEOPLE? GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND DON'T COME NEAR MY SHOP ANYMORE, YOU PINK HAIRED BITCH!"

Popuri's lip quivered for a bit until she burst out crying and ran out of the shop. May, who was standing near the door, stared at the angry man before bolting off with a frightened look on her face. Kai called out to the little girl, but May had already gone. Great, now May was going to think he was a crazy manic, tell her grandfather, and soon the whole town would hear about how he had made poor Popuri cry. Now he was going to lose some business and hear from Rick's loud mouth.

"What was that all about?" said Karen walking into the restaurant.

"What did you see?" Had he…no Popuri ruined his chances to get a date? Great just great…

"I just saw Popuri…whoa, what happened here?"

"That idea just about set my place on fire." sighed Kai. "And I just spent a lot of money getting this ice machine only for her to set it on fire."

"Geez, what did she do exactly?"

"She threw a water balloon, trying to cool me off, and hit the plug over there."

"Dang. Well at least your restaurant is okay…ish…" Karen looked over the place.

"Yeah. It didn't burn to the fucking ground." Kai sighed rubbing his face. "This is going to be so expensive. Maybe I should just leave town early to get my money's worth somewhere else. After today, I'm not going to have much business since I lost my temper with that idiot."

"I wouldn't say that. Your food is the best in town. It's even better than the hotel's even." the brunette assured him. "If you just explained, I'm pretty sure that people would still come here."

"Maybe…" He crossed his arms.

"I have some news that'll cheer you up."

"A new ice machine? A way to get Popuri to leave me alone?"

"No. I got a date set up for you and Maria."

"Really?" Kai was happy at the thought of good news.

"Yep. She was a little surprised at first, but overall she was pretty excited. She's never been asked out before. Maybe this'll give her a good chance of getting out of her shell a little more and Popuri off of you."

"Thanks, Karen! I owe you one!" Kai grinned. Karen had just made his day with that one sentence. Imagine not having to deal with that annoying pink haired idiot anymore…well if everything went well and they hit it off. Karen went on her way after a chat over a few things about the date coming up next week and Kai decided to close shop early.

As he was locking the doors, he heard a voice behind him. "Is it closed already? Looks like I walked all the way here for nothing!"

"Hey, it's you!" he turned around to face the blonde woman from before.

"Oh hey. You own this place?"

"Sure do."

"I see. I've been hearing good things about your restaurant and I finally got the chance to check it out. Do you close early on Wednesday?"

"Well actually no. Popuri managed to nearly burn my restaurant down with her stupidity today so I closed shop early and it's going to be shut down for a while too." explained Kai.

"Really? What happened?" Kai then poured into the story of how Popuri nearly destroyed his lively-hood in Mineral Town. "Geez. Well I'm sure it was an accident."

"I don't care what it was. All I want for her is to leave me alone. I think I would forgive her more easily if she wasn't always messing everything up for me."

"Do you need any help?"

"As much as I would love the help, there really isn't anything you can do for me seeing as you're a farmer."

The blonde woman glared at him. "Excuse me? I'll have you know that just because I'm a farmer doesn't mean I don't know how to fix things or be of much use. I'm running an entire farm by myself without any help, ya know."

Before Kai could apologize to Claire, the woman had already stormed off. Oh well. He'd just apologize later. Right now, he needed to organize a few things for both his restaurant and for his date. After making a few phone calls to get his restaurant repaired and cleaned up, Kai headed back to the hotel to grab some dinner and head off to bed.

However he ran into a very angry Rick. "There you are, you scumbag!"

"Not you again." Rick rolled his eyes. "Look…"

"No _you_ look, Kai. How dare you yell at my sister, you piece of…of…SHIT!" Rick yelled and covered up his mouth, blushing. Even Kai was shocked at Rick's language.

"Well damn, Rick. I didn't think you'd use that kind of language." Kai said watching as Rick looked around for anybody else that could have caught him.

"Well…I uh…never mind about that, Kai." said the chicken farmer quickly. "The point is you made my sister cry and you're gonna pay the price!"

"How so? Are you gonna fight me or something, chicken man?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"You heard me, Rick! You wanna go, asshole?"

"I…you…I'm not going to fight you, Kai! Unlike you, I'm a gentleman. However I **_will_ ** have justice for what you did to my sister!"

"And _**I'll** _ have justice for what your sister did to my shop!"

Rick bumped past Kai and headed on past the other male. "Damn fool. That date can't come soon enough."


	3. Chapter 3

By the time that Kai's date with Mary came around, Kai was pleasantly surprised that Popuri wasn't bothering him. It may have had something to do with either Rick or her own choice. Either way, he wasn't complaining about it. He looked at his watch. In a few minutes, his date was going to arrive. They were having dinner at the hotel since his restaurant was being worked on. Hopefully Rick wouldn't show up and ruin everything. He doubted Popuri would show up to the hotel. In all the years he stayed in Mineral Town, the hotel was the one place Popuri never came. Rick would occasionally be there with Karen or by himself, but never Popuri.

He went downstairs after getting dressed and stopped by Maria's house. Anna, her mother, informed him that Maria was still in the library. Kai went inside and found Mary at her bookshelf. "Hey, Mary."

"Kai!" Mary turned around. "You scared me!"

"Sorry."

"It's alright. You didn't mean to. It's almost time for our date, right?" Kai nodded. "I thought so. I'll get ready now!"

Kai went outside to wait for Maria. When she came out, she had taken off her glasses, she had on red lipstick, mascara, black eye shadow, she was wearing a short white dress that went down to her knees, her hair was done into a bun, and she was wearing black high heels. Well this was surprising. Mary had gotten all dressed up for their dinner date and she looked like a completely different person.

"Wow, you look amazing." said Kai. "And a little different."

"Yeah, my mother wanted me to dress up like this." she blushed. "Thanks. I don't normally dress like this though."

"I think you'd look amazing anyways." said Kai making her blush even harder. "Come on."

The two headed off towards the inn together hand in hand. On their way there, he saw Rick heading the same way. He hoped that he would keep going and head somewhere else. Sadly Rick headed inside. Kai started to ask his date if they could go elsewhere, but he shook his head. No he wasn't going anywhere just because of Rick. As long as that four eyed idiot didn't say anything to him, he'd ignore him.

Once inside, Mary and Kai were given their menus by Ann. "Good evening. Who's your date here Kai? A pretty girl you picked up from a different town?"

"Hey, Ann." blushed Mary.

"What? Is that you Mary?" Ann looked shocked. "You look so different than before! I'm not trying to be rude or anything. It's just wow! You look like a movie star! I wish I could look like you."

"T-thank you." she blushed even harder than before. "My mom helped me out."

"Well it's a good look for you. Oh right, here are your menus!" she handed them their menus.

The date went by okay without Rick coming in and saying anything. Rick kept to himself, however Kai attributed this to Katen being with him and Popuri not being there. Speaking of the devil, Popuri came in. He ignored the woman and continued talking with the woman in front of her. He was having a good time and the walking cotton candy had better not bother them. Popuri had walked over to her older brother and began chatting with him and Karen. Kai was curious to know what they were talking about, but they were too far away from the three of them.

"I-I'm really having a good time with you." said Mary smiling shyly. "Its been a while since I've been asked out. I haven't been asked out since before I moved here."

"For real? That's surprising." said Kai and it really was surprising.

Mary was a pretty young lady and she was really nice too. Then again, it was pretty rare that he had seen anybody come to the inn for a date or hear about someone going out on one. Maybe it was just him. Kai leaned in for a kiss. Before the two of them could kiss, he was yanked away from his date and hit the floor. He rubbed his head and then noticed that Popuri had grabbed the younger woman by the hair and was beating the shit out of her! Mary tried fighting back by using her soup to splash it in her face. Popuri backed up, wiping her face. She recovered fast and grabbed the girl's hair that had come loose while Mary was trying to running away and yanked her back. She broke the wine bottle to try and cut up Mary. Kai scrambled up and grabbed the chair. He swung the chair at Popuri, slamming the chair into the back of her skull.

Popuri fell down onto the floor and at least she wasn't the only one on the floor. While he was getting over the headache and shock of being knocked onto the floor, apparently Karen had been trying to help out and ended up on the floor. She had a bloody nose, a red mark on her cheek and was rubbing it. He helped her up after helping up Mary. "Are you two okay? You're not hurt too badly are you?"

"One thing's for sure, Popuri packs one hell of a punch and she slapped the taste out of me!" said Karen touching her nose. "Damn it, I think I'm going to need surgery on my nose! I think the crazy bitch broke it."

"Where's Rick?"

"He left before Popuri went over to you two." said Karen as she used a napkin to clean her nose.

"How are you, Mary?" asked Kai turning to the raven.

"I-I'm fine." Mary's makeup was smeared and her dress was ripped up and barely clothing her. Even the area around her chest was barely covered up and was barely holding up. She had to use her hands to hold up her dress so her chest wouldn't show. She had bruises there every here and there and a lot of scratches on her.

"Come on, I'll..."

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Popuri had jumped up and grabbed Mary.

"Aaaah!" she screamed as Popuri grabbed her. "Don't kill me, please!"

"Put her down!" said Doug who had entered the scene with Harris.

"Calm down Popuri we can..." Harris recieved a punch in the face when he tried coming close to her.

"POPURI!" It was Lillia. She had shown up on the scene with Rick. "Come here right now!"

"But..." Lillia just grabbed the young woman by the ear.

"We need to have a long talk young lady!" said Lillia dragging her daughter behind her.

"See what you've done now!" snapped the older brother of the pink haired menace.

"ME?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" asked the resturant owner. "What the hell did I do?"

"I don't know what the hell you did to make my sister act like that, but whatever it is quit it!" yelled Rick. "If you're drugging her or something or you're doing something illegal to her..."

"RICK GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KICK YOUR ASS!" Kai shoved her out of the way. "Come on, Mary. Let's get you home."

Kai had walked the woman home with Harris coming with him. Mary had quickly went upstairs while her parents heard about what had happened at the inn. Neither parent blamed Kai, but they couldn't believe that sweet Popuri had done what she did. Just as Kai turned to leave, Anna asked for a quick chat with Kai.

"You know if she acted like this because she likes you then...then...then you'd probably be better off not dating my daughter." said Anna.

"But...!"

"I'm not trying to offend you or say that I don't like you or anything. I mean I do like you and everything, but if Popuri's going to attack every girl she sees near you that comes off as a threat to her..."

"...I-I understand, but isn't she going to be locked up?"

"I doubt it." She shook her head. "We don't have a jail around here. You know unless the mayor's house is one. Even then she can break out."

"I guess...good night." Kai went back to the inn. Everyone there was talking about the events of the night. Kai was embarassed and furious. Damn Popuri. She ruined his date and the bitch probably ruined his chance of getting a date with another woman ever again. Once upstairs he saw Gray in the room. "Hey Gray."

"Hey. I heard about what happened." said the blonde man. "Is she okay?"

"Somewhat. Nobody could stop her. Karen tried to stop her, but she either broke it or came close to breaking it." explained Kai as he starting taked off his shoes. "She knocked me over and punched Harris in the face."

"You mean she punched a cop?"

"Yeah, although to be honest he's kind of a shitty cop." admitted Kai as he laid in bed. "She only stopped when her mom took her away."

"What are they gonna do to her?"

"Probably nothing and even worse I can't see Mary at all! Her mom thinks Popuri's gonna attack her again."

"She probably is and most likely still is." said Gray as he got into bed too. "That's pretty shitty crappy."

"Yep. What's almost just as bad is that Rick thought the whole thing was my fault."

"Don't mind him, he's just jealous of you." said Gray. "You'll find someone."

"Maybe." he sighed. "Goodnight Gray."

"Night Kai."


	4. Chapter 4

You Serious- Yes I am being serious. Look I see where you're coming from and I love Popuri to death. It's hard to see from the way I portrayed her here. Besides Elli, she's my favorite girl in the whole series. She's so cute and adorable it hurts. Her and Kai are the only characters I allow to get married besides nearly all the couples in HM 64 and occasionally Gray and Mary

You don't like the way I wrote Popuri which is fine. It's your **_opinion_** and I respect that. I'll write her my way and you write her your way. After all, this is FAN FICTION. Characters are bound to be out of character a lot of the time. Perhaps I should have put an OOC warning. Even then, I'm sure you'd say the same thing anyways. And no it isn't hard, but I chose not to. I'll do what I please in this story, thanks. You're free to try and change my mind, but I like my story the way it is thanks.

* * *

Kai was outside kicking a can when he saw the blonde woman making her way to the beach. Kai quickly went to catch up to her. "Hey! Miss!"

"Who me?" asked the young woman turning around.

"Yeah." said Kai as she stopped walking. "I was wondering when I'd see you again."

"To be honest, I was hoping I wouldn't." confessed the blonde adjusting her overall strap.

"Oh?"

"I hear Popuri's not too keen on letting another girl near you." she said looking around nervously. "I'd better go..."

"Wait!" he grabbed her wrist. "Could you at least tell me your name?"

"It's Claire! Gotta go!" she quickly slipped out of his grasp and left. So her name was Claire, huh? Well it was a start. Claire suddenly came back to the beach, picked the purple grass that grew on the beach, and left again. That was kind of odd. Hm.

Kai went into his restaurant and watched the out of town workers going at it. Gotz had thrown his back out during the first day on the job and couldn't get back to it anytime soon according to the doctor. Gotz of course had been insulted when Kai called in out of town carpenters and let him know about it in a strongly worded letter. Kai of course didn't care about this fact that this pissed off the carpenter. By the time he got better, it was time for him to leave the village. Hell at this rate, he might be stuck here with all the repairs needed doing. He was pretty bored so he went off to the inn to hang out with Gray.

He was happy that Gray agreed that Rick needed to loosen up some with Popuri. "It's amazing she doesn't attack him for always snapping at you. I mean she did attack Mary and they're pretty close from what I've seen."

"Popuri doesn't care." Kai shrugged as he took a drink of water. "The only ones who can control her is her mother and just barely."

"Yeah, Lillia doesn't go out too often." said the blonde man. "She can't keep Popuri on a leash for too long and Rick couldn't if he tried. I wonder how their dad would handle it."

"It's no use to bring him up." Rod, Lillia's husband and father of her children, had gone off searching for a rare flower to cure his ailing wife. Kai had never seen him and neither had Gray. From what they had heard, he hadn't been in the village for years and left behind his wife and children only occasionally writing them. Even if Kai was able to contact him, he doubted he'd come back and handle Popuri.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea." he sighed. "I can't date Mary because of what happened and another girl I'm interested in...well she won't talk to me because of Popuri. I doubt any girl in this town will look my way anymore."

"Well you are a good looking guy. Who couldn't resist you?" Gray suddenly realized what he said. "I-I mean...I didn't mean it like that! I just uh..."

"It's okay Gray." laughed Kai. "If it helps, you're pretty cute too."

Gray just blushed as he adjusted his hat.

"You know you should go out and find yourself a girl too." said Kai.

"I dunno." said Gray. "I don't date often and it's been a while. I haven't gone on a date since the city..."

"Gray, you just gave me a great idea!" said Kai.

"What?"

"I could disguise myself as a friend of your's from the city!" said Kai grinning. "That way I can get a girlfriend and Popuri won't know until it's too late!"

"That is pretty smart!" said Gray.

"'I know right? Now all I have to do is get some different clothes on." said Kai. "This town doesn't have a clothing store so I guess I'm going to have to do some online shopping for a new look."

Gray and Kai then discussed what type of disguise Kai should get after paying their bill and going back into their room. Kai was enthusiastic about his plan and was happy he had thought of it. Now to perfectly execute his plan and pray that it worked. Hopefully this plan was as full proofed as he hoped. With Gray's help, he'd finally get a date! Maybe even with that beautiful woman Claire.


End file.
